South Carolina Sweeps Operators File Two More Lawsuits

ROCK HILL, SC -- Two operators of sweepstakes videogames have filed separate lawsuits against officials in South Carolina's York County. The suits charge that law enforcement violated the operators' rights by seizing machines that a local judge had previously declared legal.

One plaintiff, identified by local media as GM Company, sued the county's Drug Enforcement Unit Commander Marvin Brown, asserting that the DEU unlawfully seized four machines. A second plaintiff sued Sheriff Bruce Bryant; the operator said he was threatened with arrest by sheriffs if he did not cease operation of sweepstakes videogames, according to a story in the Charlotte Observer.

This means South Carolina's state and county governments are now facing multiple lawsuits from operators filed this October alone. On Oct. 15, seven operators filed a joint action against the state Attorney General's office and the State Law Enforcement Division, seeking to prevent police from seizing sweepstakes games. | SEE STORY

Brown and Bryant, the defendants in the two York County cases, said they acted lawfully and that the seizure and threat of arrests were consistent with enforcement policies of the State Law Enforcement Division and the state Attorney General.

In 2009 and early in 2012, two York County judges ordered four Palmetto Gold machines returned to operators in two unrelated cases.